In September 2013 Life Master Tim McEntee secured
sponsorship to put on a tournament with the goal of generating interest in Iowa
chess. Tim decided to hold a free one day three round tournament open to any
player who had ever attained the expert rating of 2000. Marshalltown
(population 25,000) was chosen as the host city because of its central location
to the Iowa chess centers.

The Marshalltown Salvation Army donated their
building for the tournament playing site and Senior TD Hank Anzis of
Marshalltown volunteered his services as tournament director. The date of
February 8th was selected and planning for the event began with a
U2000 Broken Pawn Reserve section and an unrated meet-up tournament for the
chess.com ‘Team Iowa' group.

Despite a windy snowstorm on the morning of the tournament,
14 expert and higher players from Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Kansas
traveled from as far away as 400 miles for a shot at the guaranteed $1150 prize
fund including a $500 first prize with Ivan Wijetunge of the ‘Getting To 2000' blog serving as
houseman. The top rated player was the recently crowned World Under 10 year old chess
champion Awonder Liang who made his way from Madison to compete and watch his
siblings Adream, Able, and Angelva play in the reserve tournament.

Awonder's
father Will Liang said that while Awonder will soon be competing primarily in
norm tournaments he still wants to play in the Midwest to say ‘Thank You' to
the communities that nurtured his chess development. Will was happy to have
Awonder play in a strong tournament and have his siblings compete at the same
time.

Awonder Liang and Robert Reynolds battle in the final round of the $1150 Expert+ Open

The lure of seeing Awonder and the rest of the master and
expert players (which included 2013 Iowa champion Dan Brashaw and 4 other past
state champions) drew non-expert players from Marshalltown and around the state
to play in the Reserve section (which paid out 100% of the entry fees in
prizes) and the free Team Iowa meet-up. Major Paul Fleeman of the Salvation
Army came from Nebraska to watch the tournament.

Major Fleeman is the District
Commander of the Salvation Army for Iowa and Nebraska as well as a USCF rated
player who authored a chess blog called ‘Life Lessons From Chess'. The
tournament was structured so that all the players could have lunch and dinner
at the same time. Some of the Reserve players were able to play bughouse with
Awonder and his siblings. Experts and amateurs alike had a chance to mingle,
watch each other's games, and make friends. This camaraderie turned the
tournament into a special occasion and a festival of chess.

Co-champion Awonder Liang, Photo Cliff Yates

In the Expert Open, three time Iowa Denker representative
Kushan Tyagi took the final round lead with 2.5 points to share first with
Awonder and 2007 Iowa champion Robert Reynolds. The three champions took home
$334 for their efforts with Reynolds getting another $50 for scoring the top
upset prize. Tim Crouse of Boone, Iowa
and Tony Dutiel of Nebraska shared the Broken Pawn Reserve championship. Wijetunge
played in the chess.com tournament under the handle of ‘iwijetunge' in the
rounds he wasn't needed as the expert houseman, sweeping the field of mostly
on-line players that had never met each other in person.

The players were thrilled to host the Liang family and have
the opportunity to play alongside and against Awonder, Adream, Able, and
Angelva. All were inspired by seeing how friendly this great chess family was
and how well they got along with everyone away from the board no matter the
results across from it.

I can't imagine how inspired they would have been if
they had seen the entire family laughing and giggling as they helped Tim and I
put away the tables and chairs after the tournament to make the building ready
for Sunday Worship services. Cliff Yates is an semi-professional photographer
who played in Reserve after a 15 year hiatus from rated chess and was so taken
by the day that he took pictures and made a slide show video on YouTubeto capture the day a chess festival broke out in Marshalltown.